1. Blue Ridge Parkway: Fall colors vividly pop in this photo of the parkway in the North Carolina portion of its route. (The parkway continues into Virginia). Nearly 16.8 million people paid recreational visits to the parkway in 2023, making it the No. 1 US National Park Service site. 2. Golden Gate National Recreation Area: Golden Gate National Recreation Area supports 19 distinct ecosystems. The site stretches across three California counties: San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo. 3. Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Another sunrise comes to the third-most visited NPS site, which straddles North Carolina and Tennessee. It also holds the distinction of being the most visited of the 63 national parks in 2023. 4. Gateway National Recreation Area: The military barracks at Fort Hancock are part of the recreation area's Sandy Hook Unit in New Jersey.  The recreation area stretches into New York, too. 5. Gulf Islands National Seashore: This treasure on the Gulf of Mexico occupies various pristine spots in Mississippi and Florida. A footpath here leads to the beach on Perdido Key in Florida. 6. The Lincoln Memorial: At the epicenter of American history, the Lincoln Memorial is on the National Mall in Washington. It celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2022. 7. George Washington Memorial Parkway: Cyclists bike down George Washington Memorial Parkway near Spout Run Parkway. The parkway is in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. 8. Natchez Trace Parkway: This 444-mile ribbon of beauty goes through Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. 9. Lake Mead National Recreation Area: Like many other sites, this recreation area crosses state lines, occupying parts of Arizona and Nevada. 10. Glen Canyon National Recreation Area: This site stretches over 1.25 million acres in Arizona and Utah. Roughly 325.5 million recreation visits were paid to the more than 400 sites administered by the NPS last year, according to statistics released February 22 in its annual visitation report. “From Kaloko Honokōhau National Historic Park in Hawai’i to Congaree National Park in South Carolina, parks are attracting more visitors each year to learn about our shared history,” National Park Service Director Chuck Sams said in a news release. As usual, a select few sites – the bulk of them perennials – proved to be the most popular. Day or night, the Lincoln Memorial is one of the most moving -- and popular -- experiences in the nation's capital. The sole new entry in 2023’s Top 10 is Glen Canyon NRA in Arizona and Utah, which suffered from extensive drought along with the rest of the Southwest in 2022. Dropping out of the top 10 from 2022 is the emotionally charged and somber Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., which still landed a very respectable No. 12 ranking for 2023. Beguiling Joshua trees and intriguing rock formations helped draw millions of vistoris to Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California in 2023. Joshua Tree in California and Olympic in Washington state are the usurpers on the 2023 national parks list, knocking out Cuyahoga Valley in Ohio and Glacier in Montana from their top 10 perches in the 2022 list. While they garner much of the attention, national parks hosted only 28% of the total number of visitors to all various NPS components in 2023. Congaree National Park in South Carolina is starting to grow in popularity, getting more recognition beyond its home state. Visitation habits to NPS sites are changing with people finding ways to bypass the traditional warm-weather peak. Also of note: 20 sites — some well-known, but others not household names — broke visitation records in 2023. Among the more famous ones were Joshua Tree National Park (3.27 million) and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. (8.09 million). © 2024 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved.  CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.